Sunday, May 17, 2015

Most Ridiculous Moment - May 17, 2015

THE RIGHT DECISION

It
was another scary day on the Sunday talk shows. The hot topic was, of
course, the U.S. killing of a leader of ISIS, and the crash of an
Amtrak train in Philadelphia.

Former
CIA director Mike Morell came on ABC to warn that ISIS is trying make
bubonic plague, after which George Stephanopoulos asked “what's
your greatest fear from ISIS?” Morell said it was “an attack in
the homeland using some sort of weapons of mass destruction, which
we're a long way off from.” Diane Feinstein appeared to warn ISIS
is in twelve countries and “is organized. It is an impressive fighting
force. It occupies territory. It runs a government. And most
importantly it is evil.”

On
Meet The Press, Richard Engel compared the terrorist killed to
Al Capone's accountant. Tom Friedman said “we are in post-imperial
era” and “We're in a post-colonial era” and “we're
increasingly in a post-authoritarian era. And unless these people can
learn how to govern themselves horizontally, by forging social
contracts for how to live together, this region is going to be a
human development disaster area for the next President.”

On
the same show, Chuck Todd complained to Senator Booker, and his
panel, that Democrats were “grandstanding” and “taking
political advantage” of the Amtrak crash to push for more Amtrak
funding, while his Republican guest agreed, saying “the Democrats
have been shameful this week on this.”

On
the other big issue of the week, Jeb Bush's defense of the invasion
of Iraq, Peggy Noonan said “He deserves, I think great credit in
this,” while Chuck Todd's Republican guest said Jeb couldn't
criticize the war because he was commanderin chief of the Air
National Guard.

But
the most absurd moments came when two Republican Presidential
candidates faced their own Iraq war questions, having had both a
decade to prepare and Jeb Bush's example to learn from.

On
Face The Nation, Scott Walker said quote “any president,
regardless of party, probably would have made a similar decision to
what President Bush did at the time with the information he had
available.” He talked up the surge, complained the region is
destabilized because President Obama withdrew from Iraq, and claimed
the world was safe when Reagan was President because he fired the air
traffic controllers.

On
Fox New Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Marco Rubio several times
this challenging question, “Was it a mistake to go into Iraq?”

After
Rubio said it was not a mistake, Wallace clarified that he meant
based on what we know now. Rubio shrugged and said dismissively,
"Well, based on what we know now, I would not have thought Manny
Pacquiao was going to beat, uh, in that fight a few weeks ago,” a
strange analogy since Pacquiao lost that fight.

Rubio
repeated the phrase “It was not a mistake,” not once, or twice,
but six times. When Wallace asked again in “hindsight,” if it was
a mistake, Rubio said “The world is a better place because Saddam
Hussein is not there.” Wallace asked again, “So was it a mistake
or not?” Rubio responded “I don't understand the question you're
asking.”

Finally
insisting Bush was dealing with Saddam Hussein, not a “Nobel prize
winner” and even though the reason for the war didn't exist, Rubio
said “That does not mean he made the wrong decision,” and “He
made the right decision.”

So,
years after all sane and normal people, even on the right, admit
invading Iraq was huge, colossal, terrible mistake, Republican
Presidential candidates still insist that because Hussein hadn't won
the Nobel peace prize, or should not have been in power, or the
intelligence was wrong, the decision to invade was not a mistake, and
the President made the right decision. And that's the most ridiculous
thing that happened this Sunday.